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Zac Hall

apollozac

Zac Hall is 9to5Mac Editor-at-Large with a focus on technology news, product reviews, and analysis. Zac previously served as 9to5Mac Editor-in-Chief, hosted over 400 weekly episodes of the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and has been a member of the 9to5Mac family since 2013. Zac has over a decade of experience in technology journalism, including as a tech columnist for the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, part of the USA Today network.

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Ohio police credit Apple Watch for alerting them to car crash over the weekend

iPhone 14 crash detection iOS 16.3.1

Police in Ohio are crediting the Apple Watch with notifying them of a fatal car crash that occurred over the weekend. Sadly, the car crash left one person dead and another person in critical condition. The cause of the crash is still being investigated, but police in Columbus, Ohio, say they used a combination of technology to locate the incident.

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Roulette is a new way to surf your favorite parts of the web on iPhone

Before streaming video surfaces took over, channel surfing was one of the great joys of watching TV – even if you never found something to watch.

Similarly, there used to be lots of ways to surf the web, searching for some new discovery. Stumble Upon is a great example. Every click would land you somewhere new. You might even become a regular visitor of whatever site you end up finding.

Reddit and Twitter eventually became where links lived, but without the kind of random nature of “flipping through channels” on the internet. Web Roulette is a new app from the designers of Clear and Heads Up that restores the randomness.

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Apple promoting WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge winners, award includes AirPods Pro and special pin pack

Apple is showcasing three WWDC23 Swift Student Challenge winners who submitting original app playgrounds using Apple’s Swift developer language. The highlighted submissions include app playgrounds for strengthening eye muscles, sports and filmmaking, and learning about dinosaur fossils. Winners have also been showing off their swag that comes along with the invitation to attend WWDC in person and online.

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There’s still one AirPower feature Apple should release

AirPower

Ah, AirPower, Apple’s ambitious wireless charging mat unveiled in September 2017 and canceled in March 2019. Who could forget the unreleased product that never even got a price tag?

Multidevice Qi chargers and Apple’s MagSafe technology have long since made AirPower look basic and dated. Even Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger hasn’t caught up with fast charging capabilities on newer devices.

Still, there’s one AirPower promise that only Apple could fulfill to make the canceled wireless charging mat completely obsolete while improving another product.

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How much would you pay for a more premium iPad mini?

Taking a break from Apple headset hype, let’s talk about the iPad mini. Apple brought the 7.9-inch Home button iPad mini into the modern era with the 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display version in September 2021.

Available in four colors, the A15 chip-equipped iPad mini hardly feels dated with performance on par with that of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14. If anything, an updated iPad mini could satisfy a lot of fans wanting a more premium model that could be sold alongside the current iPad mini 6.

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Apple has been openly building technology for its new mixed reality headset for years

Apple is widely expected to introduce its long rumored mixed reality headset as part of WWDC 2023. This comes as a surprise to few in part because Apple has been singing the praises of augmented reality since at least WWDC 2017. That’s when Apple began laying the groundwork for technology used in the headset through developer tools on the iPhone and iPad.

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Apple Watch widgets sound great, but hopefully Live Activities come, too

Apple Watch Ultra

Glancing at notifications has always been a big part of the Apple Watch, but there’s a new kind of notification that isn’t really on the Apple Watch. Live Activities, the new notification type designed for frequent updates, debuted on iOS 16 for all iPhone lock screens and iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island. Live Activity alerts are fantastic on the phone, but they amplify just how out of date data can be on the watch.

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iOS 17 feature request: Take me to this photo

This week we heard about a new way Apple plans to let us use the iPhone 14 Pro always-on display in iOS 17. If you’ve ever wanted your iPhone to present more info panels in landscape, well, you’re in luck.

I hope there are more updates to customizing the standard Lock Screen as well. Specifically, there’s one thing about the Photo Shuffle version of the Lock Screen in iOS 16 that I hope changes in iOS 17.

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9to5Mac Happy Hour 435: iOS 17 smart display features, Apple headset price expectations, WWDC schedule hints

9to5mac happy hour

Benjamin and Chance talk about the released WWDC schedule, and how they expect the conference will play out in light of a new platform launch. Apple headset price expectations continue to be set with a supposed bill of materials analysis topping $1600 in component costs. Final Cut and Logic launch on iPad, and there’s rumors of brand new ‘smart display’-esque features coming in iOS 17.

Sponsored by Ladder: Go to Ladder.com/HappyHour today to see if you’re instantly approved.

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Figma just launched its own Freeform app for iPad with FigJam

Apple left it to third-party developers to create whiteboard apps on iPad for years. Then it made one out of the blue called Freeform in iPadOS 16. iPhone and Mac versions put the collaborative app on more devices.

Yet Figma has had enough success in the market of collaborative whiteboard tools that Adobe wants to buy the company for $20 billion. While that deal appears to be in jeopardy due to regulatory concerns abroad, Figma’s interest in the iPad as a tool is clear and certain.

The company just dropped a new tool for iPad called FigJam that puts a Figma spin on the Freeform idea. FigJam is Figma’s whiteboarding space, introduced in 2021. Now the online whiteboard for teams is directly on the iPad.

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